Abstract
Clinical studies indicate that children who engage in coercive or aggressive sexual acts are more likely to come from conditions of developmental adversity. Broadly speaking, the context of risk for children engaging in these behaviours aligns with particular indicators of social exclusion; geographic disadvantage, compromised family functioning and poverty. Children from such conditions of adversity are thought to be doubly compromised, as the context of risk that gave rise to the behaviours may also compromise families’ engagement with specialised therapeutic services to modify a child’s behaviours. In the absence of empirical data on the prevalence of problem sexual behaviours in Australia, this paper suggests that that scholarship and data collection underpinning the social inclusion policy agenda may inform the targeted delivery of secondary prevention strategies for children most at risk of engaging in problem sexual behaviours.
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Notes
Where children engage in highly coercive sexual acts against other children these are often described as sexually abusive behaviours and, depending on the child’s age, are subject to sanction under criminal law. For the purposes of this paper the term “problem sexual behaviours” will be used to describe all sexual behaviours by those under 18 years of age that are clinically determined to exceed developmentally appropriate behaviour. This is not to conflate the broad spectrum of problematic behaviours that might otherwise be referred to as sexually inappropriate or sexually abusive, nor is this to suggest that the consequences of the behaviours or the required responses are the same in each case. Indeed, each instance of problem sexual behaviour would require thorough assessment and the development of a response and treatment plan based on the particularities of the behaviours, the child’s age and developmental needs, as well as the familial and other contexts in which the behaviours have occurred.
International literature of this kind includes: Araji 1997; Cavanagh-Johnson 1988; Gil and Cavanagh-Johnson 1993; Itzin 2000; Kelly et al. 2000; Lane and Lobanov-Rostovsky 1997; Lovell 2002; Ryan 1997; Veneziano and Veneziano 2002. Australian literature of this kind includes: Allan 2006; Boyd and Bromfield 2006; Children’s Protection Society 2003; Flanagan 2003; Hatch 2005; Tucci et al. 2006.
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O’Brien, W. Challenges Redoubled: Contexts of Risk and Compromised Access to Services for Children with Sexualised Behaviours. Child Ind Res 4, 697–706 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-010-9086-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-010-9086-y